Mohammad Javad Larijani, former advisor to Ali Khamenei.
A senior Iranian politician has called for closer cooperation with Taliban, saying the Islamic Republic should have a key role in aiding Taliban’s intelligence.
Mohammad-Javad Larijani, who was a top advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in foreign affairs and a former head of Iran’s High Council for Human rights, made the remarks in an interview published on Wednesday.
He said cooperation with the Taliban government is an opportunity for Iran that shouldn’t be missed.
He told Tasnim news agency, affiliated to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, that Iran’s good relations with the late anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud -- also known as the Lion of Panjshir -- is not a reason to support Ahmad Massoud, the son of the veteran guerrilla commander who has vowed to continue resistance against Taliban.
Larijani, who is currently the chairman of the Iranian Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, acknowledged that there are a lot of bad beliefs in Taliban’s ideology, saying that “this new modernized version of Taliban seems to give up on some of their bad ideas because they are not practical, at least temporarily”.
Taliban's victory in August was welcomed by Iran's hardliners as a big defeat for the United States, although some criticized calls to cooperate with "reformed" Taliban.